We Have Moved

Aaron's EnvironMental Corner is now at its own domain on a brand new blog site. It's, like, spiffy and stuff.

You can now check us out at http://www.AaronsEnvironMental.com!

(Note: you will likely be redirected there in a few seconds)

If you're subscribing to this site via RSS, you shouldn't have to do anything. However, if you don't receive any new posts from me within the next 24 hours, you might need to visit the new site and use the RSS subscription link (left, in the Menu).

I'm pretty excited about the move and the new layout. The new site is on WordPress, which has a lot to offer on the back-end for more complicated sites. I may move my other blogs to new hosting soon as well.

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think of the new site!

New Website For Aaron's EnvironMental Corner Coming Soon

I've been working on a new website for Aaron's EnvironMental Corner. I've registered a domain and am setting up the new system. I'll then be porting all of the Blogger entries here over to the new site and going live.

So watch for a new site, new design, and other goodies in the next few days! To watch the new site's progress, you can go to http://www.AaronsEnvironMental.com

Apple Cider Vinegar and Its Many Uses

Vinegar made from apple juice, or apple cider vinegar, has tons of great uses. Old timers will remember all of the household uses the stuff had and now there's a rediscovery of the health benefits this stuff has too.

Apple cider vinegar is the brown liquid in a bottle at the grocery store, probably next to the "organics" or "naturals." The good, organic apple vinegars will have sediment (leftover apple pulp) on the bottom and a murky appearance.

First, let's look at some of the numerous household uses for this stuff. Note that many of these can employ regular white or clear vinegar as well, so if that's a cheaper alternative, go ahead and use that for your household chores.

Household Uses for Vinegar
You probably already know that vinegar is the ultimate in natural household cleaners. It cleans, it disinfects, and it doesn't hurt anybody. You can use vinegar to clean windows, break down hard water stains, remove glues, and more.

Vinegar is also a great rinse for produce to clean off any pesticides and waxes that were used on them before you eat.

You can also ad vinegar to your carpet cleaning routine to remove spots. If you use a steam vacuum, try using a splash of vinegar instead of soap. Or use a vinegar-wetted rag to remove spots from carpets. For the ultimate in carpet-cleaning, combine 1 part vinegar, 1/16 part lemon juice, and 8 parts water (filtered or distilled is best) and use that for carpets and rugs.

Finally, you can also use vinegar instead of bleach to get white, fresh laundry with much less chance of washing out your colors. Vinegar works awesome on organic stains like blood, grass, etc.

The Difference Between Clear Vinegar and Apple Cider Vinegar
Before we get into any medicinal uses for apple cider vinegar, a note about the difference between apple vinegar and the common white or clear vinegar you'll also see on the shelf.

The largest difference is in the processing and distillation process, since grape-derived vinegar (aka "wine vinegar") is as beneficial as apple cider vinegar, though much more expensive.

White or clear vinegar, however, is fully distilled through steam distillation, so it's a "dead" vinegar. This means it wasn't cured through the natural, sugar-induced process where the sugar breaks down and creates alcoholic vinegar. Instead, it was induced through external heat and steam distillation.

Pure apple cider vinegar, by contrast, will have been cured through a natural process wherein the apple juice or cider is just sealed into a container. Over time, the natural process will do it on its own without need of outside interference. This process leaves a lot of the good nutrients and new, good bacteria present.

Health Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar
Many holistic medical doctors and natural remedy promoters will advise you to put a large teaspoon or two of apple cider vinegar into a glass of water as a daily routine. I like to drink mine in the morning, since it also eliminates morning breath and settles my stomach. There are a lot of benefits to a daily or occasional dose of apple cider vinegar.

Hiccups can be cured with apple cider vinegar. Didn't know that? Next time you get hiccups, take a little swig of apple cider vinegar and you'll see!

Another benefit of taking a daily dose is cramp elimination. Most muscle cramps are due to low potassium levels, especially while resting and after long exercise. Taking a little apple cider vinegar before bedtime or before exercise can eliminate those cramps before they start by helping your body more readily use potassium.

Apple cider vinegar is a great heartburn reliever, can help with joint pain, and with a lot of skin blemishes and complexion issues.

For your pets, it will help control fleas and internal parasites, give a healthier coat of fur, and aids digestion and gastrointestinal issues.

Finally, if you have chronically stinky feet, you can use a weekly soak in vinegar (either apple cider or regular white) to kill the bacteria causing the smell. I like to use a bowl full to soak my feet and then take that vinegar and use it for mopping the tile and linoleum floors clean afterwards.

There are tons of great uses for vinegar. It's really a wonder juice. If you have more uses for it, share them by leaving a comment below!

Will GM Drop the Volt?

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal, written by Keith Johnson, lays out the reasons why he believes that General Motors will drop the Volt. An immediate response article on Treehugger.com by Michael G. Richard refutes that argument and lays out his reasoning for it.

I, personally, think they’re both wrong.

Read the rest at Zoomilife.com

Video - Casual Mafia: In My Prius

From: Zoomilife.com

Recycle Anything: Even Sex Toys

Here's proof that everything's recyclable. Even sex toys. This, however, is similar to yesterday's "eww" story about pee-to-water.

Why?

Because of this line, which appears in the first paragraph of the SexToyRecyclingProgram site:

While we clean all toys upon receipt, we would greatly appreciate it if you wash your toy with soap and water before shipping it to us.

Pee-Cycling Device: The Aqua H20

OK, right off, this is just nasty. Gross, even. I'd have to be pretty desperate to consider this a good idea. On the other hand, I do know a few things about survival (not that I would be toting this around if it came to THAT). Drinking urine is possible, if there is no other choice.

With all of that, I'm wondering why someone would go to the trouble of designing something to make urine palatable as a water source. At any rate, here's the instructions for how the device works. You can make up your own mind.

Reusable Grocery Bags Aren't Always All That

Are you using those reusable grocery sacks? You know, the fabric ones (usually canvas) you bought so you wouldn't have to choose between paper and plastic anymore?

Well, a new study at Toronto-based Sporometrics shows that those bags often carry microbes that could make you sick. Unless you wash your reusable bags between shopping trips, it's likely that yours are getting funky.

Two independent laboratories did swab-testing on these bags from various North American locations and found that high levels of bacterial, yeast, mold, and coliform counts were the norm rather than the exception.

The study found that 64% of reusable bags were contaminated and of those, 30% had bacterial counts above what's allowed in drinking water. 40% of the bags had yeast or mold while some even had coliforms (fecal intestinal bacteria).

Ewww...

Some recommendations to keep your grocery sacks clean:
1. Don't use them for anything BUT groceries. No gym clothes, diapers, extra stuff to run over to the neighbors, etc. Just groceries.

2. Turn the bags inside-out for storage so that the insides are well-aired and exposed to light. This kills many of the creepies that hang out in the bags.

3. Dry them completely before storing in a compact, dark location. Allow them to totally dry out before tucking them away where mold and bacteria can fester.

4. Wash them regularly and use a anti-microbial like bleach or vinegar when doing so.

These tips will definitely help.

My 3 Favorite Summer Money-Saving Tips

If you're like me, you don't just want to be green, but you want to save some green too. How is going into debt and spending money you don't need to justified as being "sustainable?" Exactly: it ain't.

Here's three of our favorite ways to stay in the green during the summer at our house:

Shop at the Farmer's Market
We will literally go through hell or high water to get to the local farmer's market every Saturday during the late summer and fall. Around here, commercial farmers are mainly shooting for the corn ethanol and feedstock markets (thanks to government subsidies), but part-timers and backyard gardeners fill the market with their home grown stuff for sale and trade.

Use a Clothesline
No, not the wrestling move, but a real, bonafied clothes line for hanging laundry on. I have to re-install ours and am awaiting new line from the hardware store to do so. Hint: situate the line where you'll actually use it, where it won't tangle clothing in nearby objects, and where rambunctious puppies can't get to it... Our old line went to the last on that list.

Go Yard Sale and Thrift Store Shopping
For my wife and I, yard sales and the thrift stores around here are like going to the mall. Only there aren't any annoying teenagers with pants that are falling off. We like to walk the dogs around town on the weekends, note the yard sales setting up or going on and then come back with the pickup truck. Trust me, you always end up glad you brought the truck...

All of these save money and make life more enjoyable. There's nothing like fresh produce and meats (yep, our farmer's market often has butchered meats), fresh clothing off the line, or great bargains and fun trinkets found at yard sales.

Thanks to yard sales and the farmer's market, I have a decent supply of re-usable lumber, windows, etc. Thanks to the clothes line, I have fresh clothes that aren't itchy from dryer sheets or wrinkly because they weren't quite done when they came out of the dryer.

What are your favorite ways to save some green while being that way?

Converting Empty Juice Boxes Into Purses and Bags

Panel of Retired Military Leaders Calls for a More Energy-Efficient Military

The world's number one polluter is not some big corporation or evil car manufacturer. The world's largest polluter is the United States Government--you know, the government that all the Al Gorebots want to put in charge of regulating pollution. That one.

The largest polluter in the U.S. government is the military.

Amid efforts by the Obama Administration to (pretend) to support and press for green initiatives, comes this report. Truth be told, hwoever, the Pentagon has been moving towards more efficient fuel usage and alternative fuel sources for years. Since way before Al Gore even discovered Power Point, even.

The advisory board, which is made up of retired generals, admirals, and one former space shuttle commander, concludes that getting off our extreme dependence on petroleum-based fuels is essential to national security. The panel says that the report is meant as a bolster to the current efforts being made by the military.

Given the timing of the report's release and the lack of such a report for the last decade, when the military was already undergoing long-term efficiency research, I'd say this report is almost entirely politically driven.

In other words, these brave people who served our country are now being used as political pawns to further someone's agenda.

Think about it. The Pentagon and various military research groups like DARPA have been working on alternative fuels for at least 10-15 years. Yet this panel and its report only just now show up to call for "change?"

Come on.

Anyway, the report is right, despite its timing and obvious political motives. What it leaves out is that the military has been working towards these goals for a long time already.

Hell, in the 1980s, DARPA was responsible for discovering that algae could be used to make biofuels!

Just my thoughts on the latest news.

Uncertain climate: Throwing cold water on The Post's warming story

Washington Times (reprinted)

A person needn't be a buffoon or political hack to be skeptical of global warming. That would be news to The Washington Post's news desk, however.

A Post article on May 19 falsely reported that there is a "consensus" among scientists and a growing portion of the American public that human carbon emissions are causing a dangerous, long-term increase in worldwide temperatures. The facts, overwhelmingly, show no such consensus.

The Post's David A. Fahrenthold reported that Republican "warming skeptics" are becoming ever bolder on Capitol Hill even as "most" or a "consensus" of "scientists around the globe have rejected their main arguments - that the climate isn't clearly warming, that humans aren't responsible for it, or that the whole thing doesn't amount to a problem." He continued: "Public opinion has also shifted" in favor of warming's existence and importance.

The latter claim is risible. Earlier this month, Gallup poll editor Frank Newport told U.S. News & World Report's Paul Bedard that on global warming, "Any measure that we look at shows Al Gore's losing at the moment. The public is just not that concerned." The highest number of respondents ever, he said - 41 percent - thinks warming claims are exaggerated. That 41 percent swamped the 28 percent who think the threat is "underestimated." Of eight major "environmental issues" (including water pollution and loss of rain forests), the public ranked warming last. The Pew Research Center in January reported climate change ranking dead last among 20 major public concerns.

Respected scientists are far from united on the issue. Reports in August from the International Geology Congress - and from other conferences or major scientific organizations in Canada, Japan, Australia and elsewhere - indicate majorities disagreeing with climate-change dogma. Republicans on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works have compiled a list of more than 700 well-credentialed scientists, including many who once believed in warming, who argue against the warming theory.

More than 31,000 scientists have signed a Global Warming Petition expressing doubts. The founder of the Weather Channel, John Coleman, has written that warming is "the greatest scam in history." As far back as two years ago, The Post's own Juliet Eilperin reported that consensus on warming was shrinking, not growing. And for good reason. Earth temperatures actually have dropped since 1998. The National Snow and Ice Data Center in April showed more Arctic sea ice than in any April since 2003. Even many prominent warming supporters acknowledge that their own models now forecast cooling for the next 30 years.

Whichever group of scientists is correct, the simple fact is that the idea of consensus is a myth.

The Post reported none of this. The only examples of warming skeptics The Post cited were those of foot-in-mouth Republican politicians. The story features a huge highlighted quote from House Minority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio, who misspoke in an April ABC interview to the effect that the issue was whether carbon dioxide is a carcinogen. A Boehner spokesman says the leader meant to question whether it is a pollutant, which is a perfectly reasonable issue.

The Post's Mr. Fahrenthold did not ask Mr. Boehner's office if the congressman still thinks the issue involves carcinogens. Yet the story was published as if Mr. Boehner's comment, ludicrous on its face, represents his continuing understanding rather than a simple verbal error of the sort frequently made in live interviews.

The Post portrayed all skeptics as "irrelevant" ignoramuses asking "head-scratching" questions in an "odd way" that is not "germane," but it refused to provide a single sentence acknowledging the growing debate among widely admired scientists. The misreporting in favor of a far-from-proven theory is enough to make any fair-minded person extremely hot - under the collar.

Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day, all.
Have a great holiday.

Milk Jugs Into Lawn Furniture

Here's a good one for your Sunday. Someone is taking milk jugs and recycling them into lawn furniture. Pretty good idea, though not exactly DIY.

Two companies, notNeutral and Loll Designs, teamed up to create this unique stuff. They're calling them the BBQ2 collection. Fitting, since their target market are probably vegans. Just a guess, though. I never said this blog was PC. :)

The table and chair sets are available in a variety of colors and don't actually look recycled. In fact, they look like rather ordinary Wal-Mart lawn furniture. The kind you buy for the kids so they can trash it. I think the word "contemporary" is how they describe this style.

Nearly every bit of the furniture is made from recycled HDPE (high density polyethylene), which is the plastic used in milk jugs, detergent bottles, and that kind of stuff.

The companies say that for every pound of furniture, there's roughly eight recycled milk jugs. Plus, the furniture itself is 100% recyclable (the non-recycled bits are stainless fasteners, which are imminently re-usable--ask any home tinkerer).

So there ya go. Eco-chic!

Click here to go to notNeutral's site and check the furniture out.

Wednesday’s 35mpg Fuel Economy Standards Debunked

In a widely publicized and loudly proclaimed press conference on Wednesday, President Obama and leaders from the environmental, automotive, and governmental sectors came together in the Rose Garden. The universal proclamation from the event was that a new agreement of epic proportions regarding automotive efficiency standards in the U.S. had been reached. Amazingly, both environmentalists and the automotive industry wholeheartedly agreed with the proposal to raise fuel standards.

“35mpg the New Standard by 2016,” screamed headlines.

So why the unilateral support for the new standards? Traditionally, environmentalists have screamed that “it’s not enough” and automakers have bellowed “it’s not realistic.” So what’s changed this time around?

Read the rest at Zoomilife.com.

Solar Powered Trash Cans in Philadelphia - The Big Belly

When I heard of these, the first thing I wondered was "Solar powered garbage cans?" Then I thought "Would the cost of such a thing really be better than a can with a bag lining it?"

Well, the answer is, yes, there are solar-powered garbage cans. They're also compactors and have a wireless communication signal to tell passing garbage trucks whether they're full enough to bother emptying.

Whether they're most cost-effective than their more primitive counterparts? I couldn't tell you. The City of Philadelphia bought some, but you can't judge economic viability by what governments do.

The cans use solar power to operate, accepting garbage of different kinds. When garbage amounts reach a certain level, they compact it. This is important, since compacted garbage takes up less landfill space. Of course, most modern garbage trucks compact garbage themselves, but that's besides the point.

The cans are also designated for recycling, so I guess compaction is kind of a bonus.

They're solar powered, though looking at this photo I'm thinking someone needs to inform the City of Philly that placing a solar panel under a tree isn't exactly efficient.

Anyway, each can holds 150 gallons of trash, thanks to the compaction, and are powered 100% by sunlight. Philadelphia plans on getting 500 total Big Bellies.

Kids Are Right: Eating Bugs and Dirt is Good For You

A recent article in Britain talks about the increasing rise in allergies amongst both youngsters and now appearing in later life as middle aged adults. What is the cause of this rise?

One of the causes is likely our much more diversified diets. With a wider range of foods available for consumption, we're more likely to run into foods we're allergic to. That's only a small portion, though.

The rest of the explanation has to do with our modern lifestyles, amenities, and the way our immune systems work.

Allergic reactions are basically an over-reaction by our immune system to a stimulus. As our system attempts to repel what is believes is an invader (disease). Usually, this happens during childhood and then goes away by adulthood as the immune system learns what is and isn't "bad."

Now we're seeing a reverse of this in many people where perfectly healthy, non-allergic people suddenly find themselves having severe (and even potentially fatal) reactions to foods they've enjoyed for their whole lives.

Many immunologists and medical scientists are attributing this to several factors combining: stress, bad overall health, and a lack of immuno-stimulation.

Stress and bad overall health are generally linked, with higher-stress people being more likely to be overweight. This usually means circulation is not as good and diet is often not very good either. These are all bad for the body in question.

The other one, though, is the one that is of interest to me. Our overly-clean lives may be what help make us allergic. I've long suspected this with children and the general rise in allergies and propensity towards sickness. I hadn't considered how it could also affect adults.

When growing up, I was one of those kids who lived in the country, ate bugs, shared food with the dog, and swam (and inadvertently drank) in ponds and lakes. I came home most afternoons with a protective coating of mud and dirt caked over my body. We also had access to real, natural, and good foods.

Most kids today don't have this. Sanitized houses, with air filters and Lysol and processed, overcooked foods are the norm.

Adults, too, are in the same situation. Thankfully, I don't live in the city, cooped into a too-clean house, going outside to smog and nasty smells. Where I live, you can go outside at night and see stars. Lots of them. Billions of billions of them, as Sagan would say.

My wife is a city person. She grew up in cities, lived the upper-middle class lifestyle, etc. She is continually amazed at my apparent lack of hygiene when it comes to washing, cleaning, and cooking.

I'm not averse to picking stuff off the vine in the garden and just eating it without washing. I have no problem with letting the dog lick the plate clean so I can use it to make a sandwich. Welcome to Aaron's World. The world of healthy immunity.

Take a lesson from me: your kids are right. Eating bugs, dirt, and even the occasional germ isn't going to kill you. It might even make you healthier!

The Goode Family on ABC - Beavis & Butthead Meet Veganism

Mike Judge, creator of Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill, etc., has a new show on ABC called "The Goode Family." The show pokes fun at healthy living and many of the hypocrisies inherent in "being green."

I look forward to seeing the show and have always found Judge's non-PC humor to be entertaining.

Here's a promo video for the show that explains it in more detail:

Chrion: A Big Rig and a Locomotive Combine With Algae Fuel

Here's an interesting concept. Of course, it's only a concept and I doubt it will ever exist. At least, not in this form. The idea of combining a locomotive and a big rig is compelling, though.

There is already a company proposing the idea of transporting big trucks (tractor, trailer and all) on railways to save both fuel and driver time. This would take care of major distribution points and allow the trucks to continue through to individual delivery points and those areas not serviced by railway.

This concept, however, takes it to a new extreme. Rather than move the tractor-trailer everywhere, the idea is to use standardized storage containers (like those already used in shipping) to move freight universally by ship, truck, and rail.

The other part of the idea is to put the truck itself ON the rails. That's the new innovation, which I can honestly say is a cool idea that will probably not be realistically feasible.

With that said, the Chiron Transprotation concept vehicle is a combination big rig and locomotive that runs on algae-powered fuel cells. It could be realistic if it were to have its own rail system to utilize (also not likely) at scale, but it's just a concept to vet out an idea.

The truck, for lack of a better term, has a hollow shell into which a cargo container can be inserted. Then it's carried off. The truck can roll on highways as normal, but is also capable of setting itself onto a set of rails and transforming into a small locomotive for hauling that container.

Theoretically, being on the rails means nearly unlimited speed and very limited slowing/stopping required. It could also mean automation, so the driver could abandon the vehicle to another driver at the rail yard after dropping it off or sit back and relax while the computers do the driving.

While I'm impressed with the concept, I can see a huge number of reality hurdles this would have to leap before becoming usable.

First is the weight issue, since there's no way this could be built to be as light or lighter than current rigs on the road. There are specific federal guidelines as to how this is controlled (called "Bridge Law") because of the way that roads are designed both for weight bearing and traffic movement.

Second is the railway integration itself. Nearly all of our national rail system is NOT electrified (as this appears to hope), which would require some heavy retrofitting. Rails are also designed to facilitate long trains moving at specific speeds at given intervals. Adding a lot of smaller traffic will mean a lot of logistics concerns and potential hazards.

Overall, I'd say that the concept is a cool one and interesting, at least. I don't see it as very realistically possible. But who knows?

Biodiesel By Shrooms

Imagine this: magic mushrooms that make fuel for your car or for the big trucks out on the highway. How cool is that?

Sound like something out of a Harold & Kumar movie? Well, folks, there's no Doogie Howser in this one. It's all about the science.

It's already well-established that corn ethanol is the worst solution to fuel problems. It's no better--and in many ways worse--than petroleum. Other solutions, like algae, have a ton of promise and look like the real future for biofuels.

But what about mushrooms?

There are some distinct advantages to using fungi as a fuel source. One of the biggest is that there's little requirement for displacing current food crops or even clearing new land for production. Mushrooms can be grown indoors, underground or in greenhouses and grow very densely with extremely high per acre yields.

A scientist in Israel, Professor Amir Sharon, has been pursuing the idea of fungi as a fuel source for some time and his team at the Department of Plant Sciences at Tel Aviv University have made a lot of headway. They've developed a cultivation technique which is transformation-based, producing less demanding 'shroom hybrids that are less sensitive to environmental conditions. This means they're easier to grow.

Using a type of mushroom that is particularly suited to fuel making (for its oil), called Aspergillus niger (pictured), Sharon's team has produced a more stable spore ('shroom) production technique. This produces a dramatic increase in fresh and dry biomass, which gives better viability to using the fungi as a fuel source.

This would mean that the production of biofuel could be made extremely low-cost. Of course, this would be in the future rather than imminently, but it's a cool approach that is definitely worth looking towards.

In my opinion, algae will likely be the largest of the biofuel sources, but competition is always good and multiple approaches are definitely warranted. This diversification will be the best overall approach to fuel production.

While many are promoting the idea of a total replacement of combustion fuels, this is not entirely realistic. I think there will almost always be a place for combustion engines as an energy source, especially in large applications. The question is the fuel itself to be used, not the engines. That is where biofuels will replace petroleum.

Better Place's New Electric Car Battery Swap Station in Action

From Zoomilife:

Virgance: Activism 2.0 - the New Face of Entrepreneural Activism

Right off the bat, I'm going to tell you that what this company is doing is exactly what I think should be happening to make for real environmental and green change in business. Face it: government mandates don't really work, they just give business something to work around or manipulate.

Real change comes from business and the markets themselves. That's what Virgance is all about.

The CEO and founder of Virgance is Steve Newcomb, very well known for his work with Powerset and Serious Business (on Facebook). He's created nine companies so far, all of which combined have about a $3 billion market value.

What he's doing now is extraordinarily obvious to anyone who understands how real business economies work and what the green movement needs.

Newcomb is backing green businesses as an investment capitalist (aka venture capitalist) through the new VC company called Virgance. MaxGladwell.com is calling this idea "Web 3.0."

I'm not sure if that's a good term for it, but it'll do I guess. What Virgance does is simple: they incubate new startups, hold assets for value, and work on a grassroots level in a way similar to a political action committee.

Ventures that hope to get the backing of Virgance have to meet the following criteria:
1. Their idea/business must lead to a measurable change, directly.
2. They must involve many people utilizing social media to make that change.
3. They must not be working towards force (aka government intervention) to facilitate the change.
4. They must be able to scale their idea onto common technological infrastructure.
5. Their business model must be solid, realistic, and sustainable.

Think of it as a business model based on Obama's campaign strategy. That's what Newcomb says. Personally, I'd say it's closer to Dr. Ron Paul's campaign strategy, but I guess using Obama implies winning.

A prime example of how Virgance works is with the Carrotmob phenomenon. This was when a large group of people suddenly flashmobs and stormed a convenience store in San Francisco last year. The owner had promised to use revenues from a specific day's sales to ad green improvements to the store. Crowds appeared and emptied his shelves.

There are a lot of ideas in Virgance's portfolio now, including Go Media--a well-known online conglomerate of popular blogs. GO Media boasts a total of 2.5 million monthly visitors. Their network also meshes perfectly with Virgance's plans. No wonder Newcomb bought them up.

This is a great idea and a solid plan from a real entrepreneur who can make it work. Unlike most "green" business initiatives, Newcomb doesn't expect to lose money on the deal. He also isn't going to be asking for government largesse to make his plan work.

Welcome to Web 3.0. Wolfram Alpha? Bah, that's got nothing on this.

Drive It Like You Stole It! Fisker Karma on the Track

From Zoomilife.

California Startup Promises to Produce 1 Billion Gallons of Biofuel by 2025

A California company called Sapphire Energy is promises to produce a billion gallons of biofuel made from algae by 2025. The young company is already testing fuels with airlines and is ramping up production facilities in New Mexico.

According to the company's plans, they will be producing over a million gallons of biofuels annually by 2011 and 100 million gallons annually by 2018 and then a billion gallons yearly by 2025.

That's pretty ambitious for a small company that's so far produced fuel in the hundreds of gallons. Considering what they've accomplished so far, though, it might be doable.

Continental airlines flew a 737 jet on Sapphire's fuel (mixed with regular aviation fuel, 50/50) in one engine and normal fuel in the other and did a full takeoff, climb, cruise at 37,000 feet, and a landing. Another test took place in Japan on a 747 with a blend of biofuels that included Sapphire's.

Another telling argument for Sapphire's success is a look at its backers: Bill Gates, the Rockefeller family, and some of the biggest names in finance have been in on Sapphire's game. Bill Gates has talked up algae as the future of biofuels (not corn ethanol) and most scientists agree that algae is carbon neutral.

Sapphire says the success of their biofuels is because the algae strains they've been developing are producing oils that are very much like regular oil. They say that it can be refined like regular oil into anything that crude oil can make: plastics, gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, you name it.

The aviation industry expects to be using biofuels on a large scale within 3-5 years.

Other companies producing algae fuels for research are Blue Marble Energy, Live Fuels, and Solazyme.

Al Gore 1984

Polysyrene Boosts Power and Emissions When Dissolved Into Diesel

This is pretty cool. Polystyrene, you know, styrofoam, that evil stuff that doesn't ever go away and that caused McDonald's to change their burger containers? Ya, that stuff.

Well, it turns out there is a good use for it. It can be dissolved and added to diesel fuel to boost it's performance. It also boosts biodiesel in the same way.

A couple of researchers at Iowa State University (wait a minute...Iowa researches not doing ethanol?) named Najeeb Kuzhiyil and Song-Charng Kong figured out that polystyrene easily dissolves into diesel and biodiesel fuels. This newly-enhanced biodiesel produces more power per gallon burned.

The good side of this is that less fuel is burned to gain more power from the engine. The bad news is that harmful emissions also increase. Not surprising, though, since it's oil that made the styrofoam in the first place and now it's being burned.

The up side is that this could be a great way to both boost the power output of biodiesel fuels but also reduce the otherwise never-degrading polystyrene that piles up in our landfills. The best part? There's no "process" for dissolving the polystyrene. It dissolves like butter on hot toast when dropped into the fuel.

Cash For Clunkers (aka Car Scrap) Scheme is Worthless

The Demopublicans in Congress want to make it so that anyone turning in a used vehicle that meets certain criteria gets paid for doing so. Basically, if you have a rusty POS sitting in your back yard, you can now trade it in at a dealership on a new car and get a pile of cash from the government for doing it.

Sounds great, right? Sure it does. Until you read the fine print.

The requirements appear to be on the up-and-up with the trade-in voucher being worth up to $4,500 depending on the EPA mileage difference between the old car and the new one you're buying. So if there's a 4mpg improvement, you get $3,500 and if there's a 10mpg improvement, you get $4,500.

Here's the problem with that: my Toyota pickup was rated to get 18mpg when new (city). If I turn it in for a Ford Diesel F150, which the EPA rates at 22mpg, I qualify for $3,500. Except my Toyota damn sure puts out less emissions than that diesel.

Now let's look at how vouchers/trade-in programs have worked elsewhere.

Facing dropping sales, the Germans decided to implement a car scrap scheme in January. The world praised them for "looking ahead" and "being green." Except for one thing. The scheme was a big time failure!

It was extremely expensive to implement, worked only for a short amount of time, and the whole thing may result in a longer-term auto-buying slump. Here's why:

The German government will end up dumping nearly 5 billion Euros into the deal this year--much more than anticipated. There was a 40% jump in car sales for a little over a month after the scheme was implemented, but that has since dropped significantly and continues to do so.

Worse, many who took advantage of the deal were probably going to buy a car anyway and some would likely have purchased cars next year, but did so now to take advantage of the scheme. Which means fewer sales next year...

Finally, the UK's Environmental Transport Association ran the numbers and said that the scheme has a huge cost-per-ton in scrappage (recyclables) for the cars, making them run in the red.

The worst part of all this? Many of those cars were likely going to be scrapped as regular recyclables through normal (non-government) channels anyway. Consumers just traded them in instead because the German government was willing to pay much more than a scrap yard would have--for obvious reasons, see the last paragraph.

I kind of like the idea at Yahoo! Green to get rid of old lawnmowers instead. These pollute much more than cars ever will.

EPA memo says greenhouse effect not proven?

Solar-Charging Park Bench W/ Free WiFi

You know those park and bus benches that just sit there doing nothing? What if they were both solar power collectors and WiFi hotspots? Wouldn't that rock?

OK, probably not the coolest thing to do, but definitely better than nothing. In fact, I might upgrade my "make me into a bench at the cemetery" plans (my ashes mixed with concrete to make a bench for people to sit on--engraved with something like "Finally, he's useful for something") to one of these instead.

Anyway, these aren't the worst idea to come along so far. Heck, a few of these around town and connected to the grid could, at the very least, cut the city's bill a little. I'd kind of question how much power is generated when someone sits on the bench and blocks the sunlight, though.

The idea comes from Owen Song at coroflot. Go here for more photos.

BH O's - the Green Alternative to That Evil Cherio's

From: Musings of a Bipolar Freak

Urban Garden as Sustainable Business in New Orleans

by Kelli Peterson

Good ideas have a life of their own. That’s what Paul Baricos, Executive Director of the Hollygrove Growers Market and Farm (HGMF) in New Orleans is learning two years after the Carrolton-Hollygrove Community Development Center (CHCDC) set out to figure out how to bring fresh produce to a neighborhood with no real access to affordable food.

The result of this initial vision, and perhaps ten iterations later, is a one-of-a-kind one-acre urban produce and garden center located in the New Orleans community of Carrolton-Hollygrove. Initiated just two short years ago in partnership with the New Orleans Food & Farm Network, the site is in its fledgling stages of a well mapped out multi-use center. “We began this journey simply trying to figure out how to bring fresh produce to an under-served community. What has evolved is a vision for this center to be a resource for urban gardening that delivers fresh produce”, relayed Paul.

Ketchup: the Wonder Condiment

My house is a good example of how ketchup works, socially. I use ketchup on fries and maybe a hot dog and that's about it. My wife, on the other hand, has to back in a tanker trunk to dump ketchup on her food. Then comes the air drop for the salt...

What most people don't know, though, is that ketchup is a wonder food. In the same way Coca-Cola is. Not because it's particularly healthy, but because of how useful the stuff can be. Really.

Here's what's in ketchup, usually: tomato concentrate, sweetener (usually corn syrup), vinegar, salt, and maybe some spice like celery extract or oregano. Other things like garlic, cloves, onion, and other spices can also be in there. The "good" ketchup will sans the corn syrup and include some sweeter spices instead.

What's in it is key to knowing what you can do with the stuff. Nearly all of this stuff is acidic. Not like "Rise of the Zombie Hordes" acid, but the "reacts with a base to make nifty science project volcanoes" acid.

It's mild enough that it won't hurt you at all, but strong enough to do some amazing stuff. Lemme show you.

Got Dogs or Kids?
Then you've probably experienced (or will likely experience) the wonder that is skunk perfume. You know, the stuff that those otherwise extremely cute little animals spray all over threats (i.e. your dog and curious kids) to protect themselves?

That doesn't wash out with dish soap and shampoo. Guess what? Yep, ketchup will wash it out. Just rub it in and rinse. Repeat at least once.

Polish
You can polish and clean all kinds of metal stuff using ketchup. It does wonders for brass, won't hurt non-stick coatings, and even works on silver too. In fact, your metal dish pans with those "permanent" burns on their bottoms can be polished back to new with ketchup and a simple scrub brush. Ad some table salt as abrasive.

It polishes lots of other stuff too. Door knobs, chrome auto and motorcycle bits, and lots more can be polished up with ketchup. Try it!

First Aid for Hair
Ketchup is a natural cleanser, as shown already. A lot of people use strange chemicals to clean, "revitalize" and whatever their hair. Did you know that you can revitalize your hair naturally with ketchup? Yep, use it like shampoo and you'll strip all of the gunk off your hair that's been building up. Without hurting your hair.

In fact, a regimen of using ketchup to clean your hair followed by an oat-based re-builder (like beer), can give you the healthiest hair on the block. Someone once told me that ketchup also prevents male pattern baldness. I'm not gonna promise anything on that.

Summing Up
So there ya go. Ketchup is awesome stuff. I've been told that if you eat a spoonful of organic ketchup a day, you'll also fix a lot of other problems, like: erectile dysfunction, age spots, stained teeth, bad breath, smelly feet, and more.

OK, I made that last list up. Still, ketchup is great stuff. Highly useful and cheap, so buy it in the five gallon Sam's Club buckets and use it!

New Organization Seeks to Eradicate Factory Farms

by Alison Rogers, Mother Earth News

Look out filthy, disease-ridden factory farms: There’s a new kid in town. An organization has surfaced to restore law and order, Wyatt Earp/Dodge City-style.

The Center to Expose and Close Animal Factories (CECAF) was launched April 30, with the objective to “achieve safe, sensible, and sustainable farming and ranching in America through policy development, public education, corporate pressure, community forums and advocacy partnerships.” The launch of this group couldn’t be more appropriate, considering that a Smithfield Foods swine operation is rumored to be ground zero in the recent H1N1 swine flu outbreak.

Attorneys and co-founders Charlie Speer and Richard Middleton plan to use the experience they gained from the more than 300 lawsuits they helped bring against industrial agriculture giants to mobilize communities in opposition of factory farms, which it says endangers the health of both humans and the environment. With an armory of regulatory, legal and legislative tools, CECAF is on a mission to end the inhumane and dangerous practices of confined animal feeding operations, or CAFOs.

Don't forget to sign up to receive e-mail updates on CECAF's progress.

The New GM Car Unveiled

Nope, it's not the much-touted, overly-hyped GM Volt. It's not even a General Motors product--at least, a pre-bankruptcy GM product. Instead, it's the Government Motors 2010 Obama!


It is environmentally friendly and zero-emissions, running entirely on hot air, empty promises, and useless rhetoric. It promises to both create new and exciting Green Jobs as well as transport Americans into the next century.

Plus, it's so affordable that even the most economically-downtrodden, unemployed worker in today's America can afford one. If you can't afford one, the government will steal one from another hard working American to give to you!

Everyone can get around on the Obama's 3-wheels of government: taxes, inflation, and debt! Plus, as an added bonus for a limited time, it includes handy teleprompter rear views so you'll have the latest heart-pounding speech to give the traffic cop when he pulls you over.


The unique, plastic bubble canopy will make sure that you're in full fivew of the CCTV cameras that are there for your safety. The...uh...cozy interior will ensure that you don't pack too much stuff with you when you drive--keeping your eco-driving at maximum.

So make sure to reserve your new GM 2010 Obama today, before they're sold out! Or the UAW goes on strike again. Whichever comes first.

Apple Offers Free Computer Recycling for Schools - for a limited time

Apple Computers has announced that they're offering free electronics recycling for schools. Any K-12 school that can come up with 25 or more Macs, PCs, and peripherals for recycling by July 31 can request a free pick-up for the month of August.

Apple will do this only once, they've said, but it's a good start towards recycling some of those old systems and peripherals. No purchase is required to participate.

Schools can apply at this link, but will need to do so by the July 31 deadline.

Government Creating a Green Job Destroys 2.2, Study Shows

A new study from Gabriel Calzada, an economist from Spain, is getting a lot of attention amongst those opposed to socialistic "green job creation" by government. Of course, since it contradicts the idea that government can save us all AND give us jobs, those in government are largely ignoring it.

The study quantifies the opportunity costs of the green energy policies of Spain. The results show that for every government job created, 2.2 jobs are lost in the private sector. This is due to a number of factors, the main one being that government doesn't "create" anything, it only redirects resources--and usually very inefficiently.

Caldoza points out that progressives in the U.S. seem blind to the obvious negatives of government-run social services and job creation when they point to Europe as their model for them. Spain, he says, has an unemployment rate of 18%--that's according to their own government. Why would this be the model for the U.S.?

It should also be pointed out that the average "poor" person in the United States has it much better than even their European counterparts. The poor in the U.S. are more likely to own a refrigerator, a car, and have more living space than their European counterparts.

The following video is over an hour long, but well worth the trouble to watch. It features a discussion at the Heritage Foundation between Bob Murphy and Calzada.

Top Prototype at Shell Eco-Marathon Americas Gets 2,757.1mpg!

At this year’s Shell Eco-Marathon Americas, the winning prototype won with an astounding 2,757.1 miles per gallon. Want to know something even more amazing? That’s not a world record for the event…

Read the rest at Zoomilife.

Recycling Coffee Grinds & Filters

Yahoo! Green recently ran a nice blog article about how to recycle your coffee grinds for better health, to help the environment, and "green your caffeine." Some of these might already be known to you, but some may not. Definitely worth the read.

Here are a few things not covered in the Yahoo! article that your coffee grinds and filters can also be used for:

Coffee Grinds:
Note that coffee stains badly, so don't use it on anything that won't rinse out or that you don't mind staining. So if you have a white dog, you probably won't want to use coffee on him as a flea repellant or as a way to wash out skunk spray.

Yep, you read right. Coffee is one of the few proven methods to wash out the stink of a skunk when your dog (or child) gets into one. Get a tub, fill with water, and put the stinky animal/child into it. Then rub thoroughly with coffee grounds, rinsing and repeating as necessary. Dump the water out on your garden, shrubs, trees, or anywhere else it's of use.

In fact, coffee grounds are great deodorizers for many things and applications. A thin layer of grounds on your compost heap can dampen many of the odors therein. Same with many others. Understand, though, that too much coffee in your compost or manure will kill many of the beneficial bacteria, so be prudent.

Filters:
The filters are 100% recyclable/biodegradable as almost all are untreated paper fiber. Take the used filter (sans most grinds) and rinse it out over your compose heap. Then throw the filter in.

Rinse and reuse the tougher filters as liners for "plant starter" DIY plugs. Just put them into the starter plug tray, fill with potting mix, and ad seeds! The filter can be pulled out when the shoots are ready for planting and either planted directly (biodegradable) or easily peeled off. I usually peel them off and throw them into the compose heap.

So put that old coffee to good use!

Spain's Big Solar Collector Tower

The world's largest solar tower for collecting and concentrating solar energy went online in Seville, Spain at the end of April. Called the PS20, the plant has a capacity of 20 megawatts and can power 10,000 homes.

The whole array is made up of 1,255 mirrors, each about 1,291 square feet, that all focus the sun onto a 531-foot tower. The concentrated heat boils water, creating steam, which turns a turbine to generate electricity.

This is the second solar tower to go into service in Spain and is twice as large as the original. Spain plans to put a total of 300MW of solar-thermal complexes into service by 2013. Not all will be towers, of course. Parabolic troughs are planned as well--they are smaller and generate more power, but the towers are faster and cheaper to build and install.

Spain is now the world's second-largest photovoltaic producer and may now be the world's largest concentrated solar producer as well.

For more information, check out the Abengoa site (makers of the tower) at this link.

And watch this short video showing how the tower operates:

Chrysler, Fiat, Bankruptcy and Renewal: Can Fiat Win U.S. Over?

Chrysler officially declared bankruptcy last week amongst cries from various political parties and pundits over the whys and hows of the deal. Despite billions in government bailouts and massive cutbacks by the company–even the restructuring of agreements with United Auto Workers and several of Chrysler’s debtors–the company could not avoid the inevitable.

While blame is being thrown at hedge fund managers and nameless “investment bankers,” the real blame should lie with the Bush and Obama administrations, the Congressmen who agreed to the bailouts, and most heavily with the massive failures of Chrysler’s management over the past decade or more. Hedge fund managers whose interest lay in keeping your 401k and Roth IRA in the black are not to blame so much as the idiotic management decisions made by the Chrysler Corp’s leadership for the past decade.

Read more at Zoomilife.

Al Gore Sliding Around Questions in Congress

Flevobike's New Green Machine Commuter Bicycle

This is the Flevobike Green Machine. If it looks odd, that's because it's a recumbant bicycle with a fully-enclosed drive train for maintenance-free riding. It's consider one of the premier commuter bikes in the world, winning the Eurobike Award in 2007.

If you're wondering what a recumbant bicycle is, it's a bike in which the wider sits back, as if in a lounge chair, and pedals while steering with either overhand handlebars or, more popularly (as seen here) below the seat. Seem strange? It is, the first time you try it, but you quickly get the hang of it and it's actually safer in the event of a crash. The down side is that your profile is lower (making you harder to see) and you have a much lower field of vision, so you don't see as much as you would sitting up.



If you enjoy recumbant riding, though, then this is the limousine of recumbants. Not only does the full-enclosed drive train mean that maintenance is minimal (no water gets in, much less oil is required), but your pant legs and cuffs don't get oily or caught in the chain either.

The bike is a 14-speed and has optional handlebars for a more traditional driving experience on this bike. The bikes come in three sizes to fit, a variety of color schemes, and are now available in the U.S.

Check them out at Flevobike.

NYT and Reporter Revkin Issue 'Correction' – Admit 'Error' in Front Page Global Warming Article Touted By Gore

by Marc Morano

Washington, DC – The New York Times has issued a “climate correction” for an “error” in its April 24, 2009 (posted online April 23) high profile front page global warming article that was touted by former Vice President Al Gore during his Congressional testimony as evidence that industry was clouding the science of climate change. [ See: Gore Mouthing-Off About Make-Believe Madoffs & NYT Corrects Article Gore Cited in Congressional Testimony]

But just little more than a week after publishing the front page article, The New York Times and reporter Andrew Revkin have now admitted the article “erred” on a key point. Revkin wrote about the now defunct Global Climate Coalition and documents that suggest the group had scientists on board in the 1990's who claimed “the science backing the role of greenhouse gases in global warming could not be refuted.” As Climate Depot exclusively reported, Revkin's article came under immediate fire from scientists and others who called into question the central claims and the accuracy of the story.

In a May 2, 2009 post titled “A Climate Correction”, Revkin and the New York Times wrote: “The article cited a 'backgrounder' that laid out the coalition's public stance, published in the early 1990s and distributed widely to lawmakers and journalists. However, the article failed to note a later version of the backgrounder that included language that conformed to the scientific advisory committee's conclusion. The amended version, which was brought to the attention of The Times by a reader, acknowledged the consensus that greenhouse gases could contribute to warming. What scientists disagreed about, it said, was 'the rate and magnitude of the 'enhanced greenhouse effect' (warming) that will result.'"

The New York Times also posted an “Editors' Note” on May 2 with the same correction.

In addition, the original Times article now has a May 2 “Editors' Note” and Revkin's Dot Earth Blog has a note, “describing an error in the news story.”

Australian Paleoclimate researcher Dr. Robert M. “Bob” Carter was the first to dismiss the NYT's Revkin article as “strange, silly even.”

Carter wrote to Climate Depot on April 23, 2009:

Revkin's latest article in the New York Times makes for strange reading; silly, even. For though the technical experts may have been advising (for some strange, doubtless self-interested reason) this: “even as the coalition worked to sway opinion, its own scientific and technical experts were advising that the science backing the role of greenhouse gases in global warming could not be refuted”, I'll eat my hat if anyone could show that was actually the case at any time since 1990. My guess is that Revkin -- like all other promulgators of AGW (anthropogenic global warming) hysteria throughout the media and scientific communities -- is starting to really feel the weight of the evidence that shows all too clearly that dangerous AGW is a myth, and is simply thrashing around in any and every direction to try to find a way of continuing to obfuscate the issue until December.

UK's Lord Christopher Monckton was even more outraged and accused the New York Times and Revkin of “deliberate misrepresentation” in climate article and of writing a “mendacious article.”

Monckton wrote the following to New York Times Public Editor and Readers' Representative Clark Hoyt, Esq., on April 28, 2009:

“The New York Times guidelines for staff writers on 'Journalistic Ethics' begin by stating the principles that all journalists should respect: impartiality and neutrality; integrity; and avoidance of conflicts of interest. Andrew Revkin's front-page article on Friday, 24 April, 2009, falsely alleging that a coalition of energy corporations had for many years acted like tobacco corporations, misrepresenting advice from its own scientists about the supposed threat of "global warming", offends grievously against all of these principles.”

(See original for links to sources.)

Aaron's Note: Since Al Gore is making some serious bank on this whole global warming tirade he's been on, perhaps an investigation into whether this reporter and/or his editor were paid to run the article at just the right time for Gore's purpose is in order?